Welcome/Announcements - Dorothy Featherling, Center for Non-Linear Dynamics. Dorothy welcomed a new member to the Town Meeting Planning Committee - Esther Barrientes, from the Center for Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering.  Starting May 2001, the Town Meetings will be broadcast on "real time video" to a URL site. This will allow employees at remote locations to view the Town Meetings, though of course they will not be able to receive the handouts or ask questions. Thanks to Kathy Guajardo for taking the April minutes.

Administrative Updates:

Office of Accounting - Barbara Glass.  Introduced Michael Parks, new Associate Director of Accounting. He'll be in charge of Student Accounts Receivable, Inventory and many other areas. He comes to UT with lots of experience and is a welcomed addition to Accounting.

Internal Audits - Lon Heuer.  Control Verification System - Lon apologized for not being able to attend the previous meeting when the new system was announced, and for the lack of communication and training about the Control Verification System that has caused lots of confusion on campus. Lon highlighted the main reasons for implementing the Control Verification System, 1) separation of duties, and 2) verification of accounts. It's necessary for UT to hold someone with signature authority responsible for accounts and to make sure that procedures put in place are adhered to.

The primary level of the CVS will reach 700 of 2000 units. The first 700 units will, hopefully, cull those inactive accounts with funds as well as those with negative balances. It will also verify whether or not the unit heads of those accounts are administering those accounts properly. A questionnaire will be sent out to unit heads and accounting contacts. After this questionnaire is returned, Internal Audits will send out updates with the information. It's hoped that the information will be useful in developing a course for new units heads on how to administer an account.

Please contact Mark Luker at 1-8978 for more information concerning the Control Verification System. He'll assist and answer questions everyone may have.

Compliance Training, On-line - Lon told everyone about the on-line compliance training program that's still being tested and improved. There is a pilot program in place and the program bugs are being worked out. The compliance training program is a huge undertaking. It will require completion by every employee appointed half-time or more. It's hoped that everyone will participate. Compliance Guide - Every employee will receive a guide which is a summary of what compliance training is all about. A version in Spanish is also available. Please contact the Compliance Office to order.

Student Accounts Receivable - Ibarra DeLane spoke briefly about summer fee bills going out on 4/23/01. She provided a detailed information sheet concerning deadlines, Special Billing contacts, helpful tips for preparation of SS2 documents and a webpage for downloading the new Employment Waiver Forms. For more info, go to http://www.utexas.edu/business/accounting/sar/stdpubs.html

Purchasing - Floyd Self.  Procards expiring in July 2001 are valid until the last day of that month. Replacement cards will be received by the Purchasing Office in mid-July. However, no replacement cards will be issued until Procard holders pass the Procard test. Procard VP7 documents must be reviewed and approved in a timely manner. Departments must keep track of approval deadlines because there are too many Procards on campus for Purchasing to send late notice emails. Possible penalties for late VP7's:

End-of-year Purchasing letters will be sent out on May 1st. All purchasing deadlines will be noted as usual. Floyd announced blanket purchase orders available for Dell, Apple Computer, Hi-Ed and Sun Microsystems. The Purchasing website will be updated soon with BPO numbers for these vendors. Call your buyer for more details.

The POINT program is progressing and it should be ready on May 1st. PBOs will be the first option available, followed by PB3, PB4, and PB6 in August 2001 if all goes according to schedule. PB7's should be available in March 2002.

The next Town Meeting will be on Tuesday, May 15, 2001.